162 The Route to Take to Bay City (1/2)

Day 6 – 9:15 AM – School Courtyard, Queens Row Elementary School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite

Captain Dela Rosa was leading Mark, Mei and the two little girls, Abbygale and Iola towards the principal's office near the main gates.

Along the way, Captain Dela Rosa could not help but ask about Iola who seemed to have completely recovered from her near death state yesterday. As someone who was there and the person in charge at that time, Mark told him about the little girl's current circumstances, except for confidential things, and what he planned for her which highly surprised the squad captain.

'This man actually wanted to adopt the girl?'

Captain Dela Rosa thought but did not try to refute it. For the girl to be adopted by someone capable as Mark was her fortune to some extent. Seeing the state of the people in Mark's group, he seemed to be cold and detached from others, would not hesitate to kill enemies and had a scary vibe around him but he was surely not an evil person. His group was filled with cheery people who were completely different to the majority of the people in the settlement. An evil leader could surely not create such wonderful scene in the middle of the apocalypse.

Considering how his performance against the men under Dominador, his violent nature did not harm any of the captured women and children. It seemed that he was a person who would not implicate innocent people as much as possible.

Besides, by right, he had the say on the girl's fate now that she should have died if not for his help. She had no relatives anymore either and no one would contradict Mark for what he wanted. Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, the girl had amnesia helping her forget her past. Though she might not remember her real family anymore, she was also able to forget the things she experienced in the past days.

Still, looking at the two girls that held hands together walking between Mark and Mei, it seemed that the younger one was behaving as the older sister as she led the other.

While walking, the captain could not help but realize that most of the attention of the people around was gathered on them. No, he was not included. Rather, the attention was gathered on the four people he was leading. It was not surprising though. Not only that the woman beside Mark was eye catching, the four was actually behaving like they were walking on a park despite the current situation.

He could clearly hear what the children were asking from behind. They were pointing at things they did not know and ask questions and the two adults would answer the two girls.

With that atmosphere behind him, the captain could only sigh and chose to ignore it. He could just wish in his mind if he could be as carefree as these people.

***

Mark and the three girls were led into the principal's office under the amazed gazes on the road. With the intense gaze the men were giving Mei, she could not help but hide behind him.

Actually, he wanted to make Mei stay back in the vehicle with the two girls but considering the current state of the settlement, he decided to bring her with him. He was already bombarded with the intense emotional fluctuation for the almost whole night. Any further would become intolerable for him no matter how much he endure.

Since back at the mall, he started to notice it. Whenever Mei was by his side, his mind state was less affected with the emotional fluctuations, specially, intense ones entering his mind. Though the emotional energies were still getting absorbed by him without control, it was milder and not too intense. It was as if something was preventing the energies from their usual momentum.

Last night however, he finally confirmed it when Mei finally fell unconscious. The intense emotional energies came in like flood, even stronger than before due to the number of depressed people in the settlement. Most of the refugees were in sorrow, anger, despair and anxious about the future. All those negative emotional energies entered his mind without control. He was only able to limit it to some extent by putting his whole concentration into something else and that was he let all his attention on working on his laptop for the rest of the night.

When Mei's fever finally subsided and her unconscious state switched to a sleeping state, the surge of emotional energies was contained once more. Mark was then sure that Mei was not normal either though it seemed that she was not an esper, there was something odd going on with her body.

Mei seemed to be able to dispel the unnecessary and excess unknown energies around her without her knowing. A further evidence of this was how he was able to sleep comfortably when he was in direct contact with her body.

Her existence was becoming more and more indispensable to him over time in many ways.

After they entered the main room of the principal's office, there Mark saw Irene with two other soldiers, City Councilor Palabrica and a few of his men and another soldier that seemed to be about the same age as or maybe older than Captain Dela Rosa by a year or two.

When they entered, the unfamiliar soldier and the city councilor's entourage looked at Mark and his group with raised eyebrows. He knew what they were thinking and it was obvious.

It was like why he brought women and children in this important meeting.

As if he would care about their opinions.

He looked at the members of the 11th squad. They did not seem to mind it.

Mark made the two little girls sit on the waiting bench nearby and told them to stay quiet. Mark then stood on the open space beside Captain Dela Rosa with Mei standing behind him. All of them surrounded a table where a map was placed open.

”Before we start, let me introduce this person first. This is Major Alfred Lopez, the person who led the 11th Rescue Squad.”

Captain Dela Rosa introduced the unfamiliar soldier with a respective tone. It was no wonder. This Alfred Lopez was the highest ranking soldier in the settlement at the moment. However, due to being a newcomer here, Captain Dela Rosa held more authority than him during this time.

The captain then introduced the city councilor and lastly, Mark.

”So, you're the person going to decide our route?”

The atmosphere turned stiff and heavy.

Major Lopez looked at Mark and asked the moment Captain Dela Rosa finished the introductions. To Mark however, he felt that the eyes of this Major wanted to gauge him and it was releasing some pressure on him, a pressure that could come from a veteran of the battlefield. It was a different pressure he could feel from experienced politicians like Congresswoman Lanie before.

Mark however, did not feel like succumbing to this pressure. He looked at the Major straight to his eye and replied.